Newt Gingrich and Rudy Giuliani Have Bold Plans to Make Trumpism Even Worse

Of all the predictable political responses to the mass murder in Orlando, the immediate impulse of non-Trumpian Republicans to dive for the handiest authoritarian solution is the most predictable of all.

Here, among the Fox News electric teevee machine mannequins, is He, Trump's future Attorney General, explaining why the Bill of Rights now has to stop at only two amendments, and the first one doesn't count. Via Mediate:

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"There's no minister, there's no rabbi in this city — nor are there some imams — that object to having police officers in their congregation," he argued. "In fact, they want them there, they want them to learn the message. It's enlightening for them." "So if you've got nothing going on there but a beautiful religious service, why in His name would you not want to have police officers there?" he asked.

Here, with an opposing view, and dropping in from 1761, is Mr. James Otis, of Boston.

Everyone with this writ may be a tyrant; if this commission be legal, a tyrant in a legal manner, also, may control, imprison, or murder anyone within the realm. In the next place, it is perpetual; there is no return. A man is accountable to no person for his doings. Every man may reign secure in his petty tyranny, and spread terror and desolation around him, until the trump of the Archangel shall excite different emotions in his soul. In the third place, a person with this writ, in the daytime, may enter all houses, shops, etc., at will, and command all to assist him. Fourthly, by this writ not only deputies, etc., but even their menial servants, are allowed to lord it over us. What is this but to have the curse of Canaan with a witness on us: to be the servants of servants, the most despicable of God's creation?

Meanwhile, elsewhere on the Fox platforms, He, Trump's future vice-president had another good idea. Via Mediamatters:

NEWT GINGRICH: Let me go a step further, because remember, San Bernardino, Fort Hood, and Orlando involve American citizens. We're going to ultimately declare a war on Islamic supremacists and we're going to say, if you pledge allegiance to ISIS, you are a traitor and you have lost your citizenship. And we're going take much tougher positions. In the late 1930s, President Franklin Roosevelt was faced with Nazi penetration in the United States. We originally created the House Un-American Activities Committee to go after Nazis. We passed several laws in 1938 and 1939 to go after Nazis and we made it illegal to help the Nazis. We're going to presently have to go take the similar steps here.

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First of all, as a former assistant professor of history and substitute metal-shop teacher at Bugtussle Regional State College And Live Bait Barge, Gingrich has to know that HUAC was not created as a standing committee of the House until 1945, and that its primary aim was chasing shadows and the rancid butterflies flittering over the garbage dumps that were the minds of its members.

Before that, it was merely a special investigation committee. It ransacked, among other things, the Federal Theater Program, but it declined to investigate the Ku Klux Klan because, as John Rankin of Mississippi put it, the Klan was nothing more than an old American institution. However, by the late 1960s, it had become a joke; Abbie Hoffman once was subpoenaed and showed up dressed as Santa Claus.

But is there any doubt that the Definer of civilization's rules and Leader (perhaps) of the civilizing forces would like to be the guy oiling the thumbscrews and apply a fresh coat of tar to the blacklist? And that's not even to mention that these two guys were as thoroughly rejected as national leaders by most of the country.

Gingrich, Giuliani, and He, Trump all deserve each other. The rest of us don't deserve them. I hope.

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